Shoreview nurse's career inspired by son's caretakers

"He's so happy and he loves life, and it's a joy to be a part of that and see that," says Eleesha Hruza of her son, Javier, whose doctors said he wouldn't survive an infection as an infant. Mom and son, now 8, are pictured here on vacation in Alaska. (Submitted photo)

Eleesha Hruza's career choice was inspired by a health crisis.

"My son Javier, was born premature by five weeks," says Hruza, who was living in northern Minnesota at the time of her son's birth in 2005. "He did OK at first, he was just little, but when he was a month old, he got a bacterial infection. Within hours, he was in septic shock.

"It was horrifying. I woke up in the middle of the night and found him listless and non-responsive. We rushed to the hospital in Bemidji. From there, he was transferred to Fargo, where he was on a ventilator and life support.

"Later, we learned that it was a water-born infection. They tested our water; it was clear. We do not know how he got it.

"In Fargo, they said he was gone (when he went into septic shock, his blood pressure dropped and he didn't have enough oxygen to his brain). The doctor said, 'It's over.' In essence, to pull the plug. Luckily, my family was there with me. I said, 'I'm not ready to do that yet.' We waited, and over the course of the weekend, his tests showed some brain activity going on.

"We were in the hospital for three or four weeks. They did not expect him to live to see his first birthday. I took this kid home and I felt like a blank piece of paper. I had no medical knowledge, I knew nothing. I knew he had suffered a brain injury, but I didn't understand the complexity of the condition. I felt very alone that first year. I can't really describe how bad it was.

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I didn't know if he would survive, or what his life would look like if he did.

"We were seeing a pediatrician in Bemidji. He asked, 'Have you been to Gillette?' I said, 'No, what's that?' I had never heard of it."

The pediatrician was referring to Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare, which cares for children, teens and young adults who have disabilities and complex medical conditions.

"We went to our first appointment there, with a neurologist, and I remember walking in and seeing so many people there who were just like Javi," Hruza says. "I thought, 'Wow, this place is different.'"

"Then, the neurologist spent two hours just counseling me -- explaining and educating: 'This is what this means, this is what that means.' No one had done that before. I was also given referrals to other specialists. At one of those appointments, someone talked to me for four hours. And so I went from being a blank piece of paper to being fully educated and involved in my son's care and decision-making in the span of six months.

"It was my turning point: I'll never forget going from where everyone treated my son like an anomaly to being the norm. Everybody Gillette sees has these kinds of conditions. There was a shift in my mentality: 'This isn't so different, this isn't so bad. A lot of people live every single day in this way.'"

Hruza experienced another turning point when her son was hospitalized at Gillette's in St. Paul.

"We were still living up north, going to the outreach clinic in Duluth, but neurologically, Javi wasn't very stable the first couple of years. That's when we started coming down to St. Paul. That was when I got exposure to the in-patient nursing staff. I was so blown away by how they were not only caring for Javi; they were like therapists for me. I felt very alone, but I could come down and talk to those nurses. They would sit and listen and let me talk and cry. There was such genuineness in them, for my son and his well-being and for me and my well-being. They wanted to take care of all of us.

"My a-ha moment came after being inpatient a few times: I realized I wanted to make a difference the way the nurses literally took my life from a point of hopelessness to a point where I felt we could still have a great life, that it was not the end.

"A month later, I enrolled in nursing school."

Hruza, 27, earned her nursing degree and now works at Gillette and lives in Shoreview; she helps families as her family was once helped.

"One of my favorite things about this job is to be that listening ear," Hruza says. "Being a nurse is so much more than giving meds. Sometimes, people need to cry. Because it's their children. And it's so awful to see your child in pain or suffering.

"One thing I've been able to say to people, that I feel confident in saying is this: 'I can't tell you where things will be in a year, but I can tell you it's going to get better. I know, because I've been there.' I think people appreciate hearing it from somebody who's been there."

Today, Javi is 8 and living fully -- he and his mom are currently "on sabbatical" in Alaska, staying with friends, fishing and exploring new places.